1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a type of aircraft passenger boarding bridge which, besides being suitable for large and medium size airplanes, is particularly suitable as a boarding bridge for narrow body aircraft fitted with their own stairs.
2. Description of Related Arts
The boarding bridge in present day use that are employed for passengers embarking and disembarking from an airplane are made of five parts including a rotunda, telescopic tunnel, bubble section, cab, and elevating columns with wheel carriage. Their structure is large and cumbersome, and in particular the structure of the floor and canopy of the cab is not suitable for small aircraft such as the SAAB340, ATR72 and F100 which have their own stairs. Because of the small size of these aircraft, when connecting with the boarding bridges that are commonly only suited for large and medium sized planes there will usually be a gap between the boarding bridge and the airplane that has to be crossed by a manually positioned gangplank for the passengers to get on or off the airplane. This is neither convenient nor safe. At the same time, since the cab and the airplane are not close fitting, this dose not meet the requirements of fire hazard prevention. Because of their size the large boarding bridges also have the disadvantage of being clumsy and expensive to transport around.